Our Team

Get Involved with London City!

Linden Lab Official: Community Gateway

"London City is committed to helping new users enjoy the best initial experience of Second Life".

We recruit from those who visit London City and get involved with its community.  It works best for all concerned, when a familiar face joins the Support Team. 

You do not need to be an expert!  Friendliness is much more important to new residents joining Second Life.  Our team is connected with each other via a chat-ap, so they can quickly find out information and resources, when helping residents.

We do not usually recruit groups of friends, as this can cause cliques, which we try to avoid. We will not recruit active members of Bloodlines and other Vampire Roleplay games.

We encourage our existing Support Team to recognize emerging talent. You you might like to reach out to one of our team to register your interest,  or to ask them about what is involved.

London City is an Official Linden Lab: Community Gateway and you should familiarize yourself with this program: see https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2179-open-the-gate-the-community-gateway-program-that-is/

ROLE PROFILE: LONDON SUPPORT    

PAY:  Whilst the role of Support itself is unpaid, all members of the team may choose to host at paid events in London City, such as bars and clubs by hosting or DJing, or being part of the London City Players team (guaranteed minimum of 250L per 1 hour show).  Those putting in longer hours to the support role may also be eligible for up-to 50% discount on residential land parcels in the estate.

AGE:  60+ days 

HOURS: Minimum of 4 per week.  (8 hours for 'rental subsidy')

PROSPECTS:   Every member of this team begins in Support.  Our region managers, club hosts, club managers, performers etc, all began as Support staff.   We do not guarantee that by joining Support,  you will automatically go on to other duties, but the Support role is the central reservoir that leads to other projects and jobs.

ROLE:  The role of 'Support' is to be a trusted source of information and to help new residents learn fundamental skills.

This may include how to use their inventory, purchase new items from the freebie shop,  block users, unpack and rez, whilst also making residents aware of the facilities within London City.

We do not spoon-feed new residents.  We do not pass inventory or landmarks.  We teach users how to use 'SL Search', whilst remaining mindful that the merchants of London City pay for these regions so where possible, we will usually encourage local shopping  if an item is readily available within the estate.

You will need to develop intuition to distinguish "the wood from the trees", and to concentrate on the new users who genuinely need help, because sometimes you are surrounded by older avatars, 'noob chasers' and new user Alts.  

We ask that altercations be addressed in IM where possible.  This can give the impression to the bar-fly's that nothing is being done, because they are not witnessing any public chat, but that is why you are Support and they are not!  We try not to do the laundry in public.

However, unless you are dealing with a personal issue, we expect our Support agents to help in Local Chat instead of IM whenever practically possible.  This serves two purposes.  Firstly it helps other new users who are very likely to be experiencing the same problem or issues, and secondly it gives others an opportunity to witness the quality and correctness of the assistance being given.

You must have the ability  to ignore  experienced but non-progressive players who come for the drama, rise above the baits thrown at you and have the ability to realize when someone is trying to manipulate you because they have taken a dislike to someone else.

You are an ambassador for London City.  We seek to recruit those with a genuine drive to help, not  those who want to police the regions. This is a support, not a governance role.

ENCOURAGE: Exploration of London City.  We have many sights to see, areas to explore and stores to shop in.   Never send new residents straight to the market place.  It is important that they learn how to use the search function in-world.  Whilst Market Place is a great resource, it is also the primary reason why so few regions for shopping exist in Second Life any more.   A good team member will know the products on sale and be able to recommend stores to people.   You will need to know the estate yourself, in order to recommend activities here.  So please set aside some time yourself and explore!

RETENTION:  If you are showing a new resident how to use search, please ensure they have first created a landmark for London City, so they can return.  Please make them aware of themed events, club times and concerts, so they know when to expect interaction with other users in a party environment.  The London City blog is the best place to find such information.

  

  

FUN and INFORMATIVE ATMOSPHERE 

We strive to make London City, the best initial experience for all new users.

We hope our Support Team will offer friendly interaction during this all important first visit to Second Life.  Friendliness is much more important than any other quality!   Besides, if you don't know how to do something yourself, you can ask other members of our team for assistance via our private help portal.

For this role, you need to be immensely patient, fun, friendly, spontaneous, level-headed, and to be able to juggle these skills and competencies to impart vital information.

If you are someone who enjoys helping others and you possess a sense of humour, which allows you to smile at irony and not be wound up by the classroom clown, then this is the role for you!

About London Support

As Support you will be friendly and approachable at all times.  If you are not feeling friendly or you have had a stressful day, please do not Support for that day.

Your job is to assist others to take the first steps in Second Life and to get the most out of the London City regions.

Although you will advise others about Terms of Service (TOS), Community Standards (CS) and the London City covenant, you are NOT here to act as an enforcement officer, or to punish people.  

What is a Support Agent?

You are usually one of the first people a new resident will meet.  It is essential that you make a good impression.

You will be in control of the situation, you should lead the new resident, they don't lead you. If a conversation starts to go down the wrong path,  you have to bring it back on track.

Usually, most unpleasant situations can be dealt with by explaining to a resident that they haven't beamed into World of Warcraft and that Second Life is a community of people who make friends, travel, build, buy, sell and act sociably with each other.

New members of Support staff are not initially given governance  powers.  We need to know if you are able to resolve situations on your own, without resorting to nuking piffling annoyances.

About Estate/Governance Powers:

Never use either Eject or Freeze unless you have first spoken to the resident and secondly AR'd them and thirdly, you can see no other solution. UNLESS it is obvious and flagrant griefing.  You must always Abuse Report griefers. It helps the lab to create a profile.

Please, always try to reason things out.  The moment you press the Eject button, you have lost the argument.  You have given up trying to negotiate.   This is a reputation we are keen to avoid.

Here are some things you can use as a first line of defense against people trying to annoy you:

People will annoy you.  MUTE them.  It is a wonderful tool and you need never hear from them again.

People will bump into you.  Get yourself a lock device or sit on something.  You cannot be pushed when you are sitting down.   Please /NEVER/ use a shield that fries people if they bump into you.  They are considered a weapon.

Someone is trying to bug you for the sake of it, put yourself in Busy mode.

HOW TO MUTE A RESIDENT

This can be achieved by right clicking on the resident, bring up the pie menu and scroll around the menu to the mute option.

HOW TO ABUSE REPORT

ABUSE REPORTS - COMMONLY CALLED - AR's

Whenever you see anyone violate the Terms Of Service (TOS), or the Community standards (CS or Big Six), or the Welcome Area Guidelines, you should file an abuse report. And so should every resident present.  You should show them how to Abuse Report.

Select a category - if in doubt, choose OTHER.

If it's an object, use the blue button above the category box, and then left click on the object, if you can. That will include details about the object, it's exact location and the owner.

Fill in the summary as clear and short and simple as you can. Include the offender's name.  Try to be clear:

Joe Public, repeated bad language, shoving and nudity.

Sue Avatar, weapons fire in no-combat zone.

Rather than..

Joe Public - being a idiot

In the details section, put in anything you think is relevant. You can include chat history.

If it's visual, you can use the INCLUDE SCREENSHOT checkbox. The screenshot is whatever your camera was looking at when you opened the report window.

>>  Teach others to MUTE, TURN OFF PARTICLES AND HOW TO ABUSE REPORT.

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REMOVING RESIDENTS HUD

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EJECT  &  GROUP KICKS / TEMP BANS

This facility is ONLY given to experienced Team Members.  It is not standard inventory given to all staff, please do not apply to team thinking you will get this permission.

When using this device, you agree that you have already made all reasonable attempts to diffuse a situation.   Banning people because they are personally annoying you is not acceptable.  For minor disruptions you will show others how to mute/block/derender.

Banning people ups the ante and can cause more serious  incidents.

Please IM users, do not use Local Chat for issues pertaining to governance.

If a user is NON-DAMAGING to the estate, you should EJECT them multiple times before resorting to banning.

A non-damaging user may be: Excessive Gestures, Argumentative, Playing music over mic, shouting, defaming, fanaticism.  In extreme cases these users might also be considered damaging.  You need to evaluate.

A user is ALWAYS considered damaging if they use: Graphics Crashers, Group Inviters, TP Lures, Distributing suspect items, Advertising,  inciting others to spoil enjoyment, obviously hateful towards the estate and staff,  mass spamming, friendship spamming to lure, vampire biting, sending phishing links (these are different from youtube links!).

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(E)ject   - Enter the user UUID and the HUD will remove the user by:

i. Sending the user Home.   If the user has home set in London City, it will then;

ii. Teleport them to a Safe Hub.

When ejected a user can return.  They are not banned, nor are they removed from groups.

You may need to eject a user if they are constantly running people over, if they are in a vehicle in the hub and are AFK for a prolonged time.  (Ejecting also removes the temp rez items).

As always, you agree when you use this device that you have made all reasonable attempts to contact the user, unless it is blatant disruption aimed at spoiling other peoples enjoyment.  When that happens, it is permitted to eject without making prior contact.

When all else has failed, or in your view the user is Damaging to the estate, you may need to use the Ban option.

You MUST remember that Bans (on any level from local to estate) kick the user from EVERY SINGLE GROUP operated by London City and as such, we consider that user lost forever, no matter how short the duration of the ban.

(B)an   - Enter the UUID and the HUD

The amount of days:    0 = 1 hour,   or  1, 2 ,3, 4,  etc days..

The reason for the ban.  You have 128 characters, please describe what happened.   "Troll" is not considered a descriptive reason.

The one hour option may be of use for a persistent user who has worn out their welcome and won't keep away despite multiple ejects.   Even so, remember that a 1 hour ban, Kicks from all groups.

Note that we do not remove users just because they are a troll.  Like it or not, trolls are part of second life.  Our job is not to sanitise the world for visitors.  Likewise, sometimes people are boisterous.  This does not make them trouble, it just makes them loud.  We do not work in a library, if you or others are having a bad day, take the day off, it's better for everyone.   Remember, teach people how to Mute/Block/Derender.  We're not the police.

Always be mindful of older players with Payment Info on file and probably lots of friends in their lists.  These residents will always tell their friends of their experience in London City.  One mistake by us can alienate whole swathes of people.

Please do not get used as a pawn or be governed by visitors who are aware of your ban rights, to exact revenge on people they personally do not like.

We reserve the right to ask you about your bans and the strategy behind them.

COMMON SENSE CLAUSE

Earlier in this tutorial we mentioned you should always contact a user by IM before removal.  There are obvious exceptions.   When an avatar is obviously here only to disrupt with spam, racist ranting, wearing a sim sized object.  You do not need to contact them.  The priority is to remove them.

ABUSE OF POWER

Our team must be accountable for their actions.

We encourage visitors to file a support ticket (via this blog) with us when they believe they have witnessed a deliberate abuse of power:

THAT'S IT!

Well that just about covers it!  We hope to hear from you soon!.

8< ------  APPLICATION  8< ------

 You may clip out this section out and return it to Torric Rodas.  Please name the notecard Support Application and add your name

Do not leave any questions blank. Mark as Not Applicable, if this is the case.

(1)  SL Account Name:

(please ensure this is your user name not your display name)

(2)  SL Age in days:

(3)  Country of Residence:

(4)  Languages you speak:

(5)  Are you able to be here to help on a regular basis?

(6)  Day(s) of week you are most likely to be available:

(7)  Hours (please use  PDT/SL times) that you are usually online:         FROM:        TO:

(8) For how long have you been visiting London City?  And bearing in mind we recruit "familiar faces", would you consider yourself to be known by our visitors and staff? :       

(9)  This is your chance to say why you are suited for this role and why do you want to be  London City  Support staff:

(10) Disclosure:  If you work at clubs, info hubs, other regions etc, this does not preclude you from volunteering at London City.  Please tell us about the other places or potential conflicts of interest that we should know about?

(11) Are you willing to install Discord on your computer to keep up to date with staff channels?

(12) Have you read and understood the London City Covenant?

 Please sign this with your account (legacy) name and date it here:


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Thanks to Rails Bailey for contributions to this article.

This forms part of the creative works and intellectual property of London City Estate. You may not copy, distribute, modify, adapt or translate any content of this document. It is not available under the Creative Commons or any other license. 

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